Fabiano’s Fantasy Focus: Week 2, Volume II

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Every week during the season NFL Network and NFL.com Senior Fantasy Analyst Michael Fabiano joins Sports360AZ.com’s Brad Cesmat to share his insight on building and developing your fantasy team for success.

Here are some hi-lights from our most recent conversation (September 11th) with the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association Hall of Famer.

Is there any concern about Kareem Hunt after one week? “Don’t be concerned. Now, Hunt is a guy I don’t have any shares in. Not because I didn’t think he could be a very productive fantasy back but I sort of expect some regression from him and we saw that in Week One. With that being said, this game against the Steelers could be a really high scoring affair so you’re going to continue to ride him. He’s still the leader in snaps and touches in that backfield. Although Spencer Ware got a few carries and looked pretty good but at this point you’re sticking with your studs.”

Would you trade Le’Veon Bell for Jay Ajayi and Deshaun Watson in a standard scoring league? “That’s an impossible question to answer because I don’t know when Le’Veon Bell is coming back. I would prefer to have Le’Veon Bell on my roster. If he is going to be back in Week Four, I wouldn’t make that deal. If he isn’t coming back until Week Ten and then he comes back so he can guarantee that he is going to be a free agent in 2019 than I would make this deal. I have no insights as to if he’s coming back or he’s not coming back. That’s a hard question for me. For me, I don’t want to trade for a running back who I don’t know is going to play even in the next month or two. It’s too much of a risk for me.”   

What are your thoughts on Austin Ekeler in Los Angeles? “Despite a low snap total, he only saw 29 percent of the snaps, he still went off. Very talented guy and has some stand alone value as a flex starter.”

Does Geronimo Allison in Green Bay hold long-term value? “Anytime your quarterback is Aaron Rodgers there is a chance you’ll put up a big stat line in any given week and Allison did that this past week, even against a good Bears defense.”

How about Quincy Enunwa? “He’s another player who had a very good Week One for the New York Jets. What a game that was, huh? Goodness gracious if you have Matthew Stafford, like I did, you were not happy.”

Patrick Mahomes or Jimmy Garoppolo this week? “How about Patrick Mahomes? I like both quarterbacks but I’m going to go with Mahomes because I feel like this is going to be a high-scoring game at the big ketchup bottle that is Heinz Field.” 

I still have a chance to add Aaron Jones in my league. Worth a roster spot? “Aaron Jones, if you have a roster spot available or maybe you have a reserve spot where you can put guys who are suspended or on injured reserve like we do on NFL.com, add him. Because Jamal Williams did not put up good numbers in Week One in tough matchup. Now he’s got another bad matchup against the Vikings and if he doesn’t produce this week maybe Aaron Jones snakes that job from him at some point during the course of the regular season. To me he’s the more talented of the two running backs.”

Chris Thompson had a big opening week. Do you see that trend continuing? “Chris Thompson was tremendous coming off of last year’s leg injury. Thompson is someone you’ll want to hold onto and start week in and week out. We always like to say Alex Smith likes to dink and dunk. He didn’t do it last year but he had Tyreke Hill on that roster. There’s no Tyreke Hill in Washington so I do think he’ll be utilizing Chris Thompson very often as a pass catcher.”

Speaking of Chris Thompson: I can start he, Carlos Hyde or Alex Collins? “Chris Thompson is the call if it is a PPR league. That is a no-brainer for me.”

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